How to Manage Your DNS
======================
BaseSpace.net clients can manage their own DNS zone files. If you are
going to do this, we assume that you are already familiar with the
basics of the Domain Name system.
Editing your current zone files
-------------------------------
On the primary BaseSpace.net server, the directory
/home//dns/zones contains all your currrently used zone
files. You can edit any of these zone files. Remember to update the
serial number.
When you are done editing, run the command
dns-update
to load your changes into the running server. You must be in your
client directory in order for this command to work. If you made a
change to a zone file but forgot to update the serial number,
dns-update will, as a convenience, probably detect this error
condition.
Adding a new zone file
----------------------
To add a new zone, create the zone file in your
/home//dns/zones directory, and run dns-update as
usual. However, the new zone will not be added to named.conf until an
automated process regenerates that file, which happens every hour.
Zone file tips and tricks
-------------------------
- Whenever you update a zone file, be sure to update the serial number
at the top of the file
99012 ; serial
Just increment it by one.
- The special symbol "@" means "the zone this file is associated with
in named.conf", which given the way we auto-generate named.conf is
just the name of the zone.
- if the left hand column of the zone file is empty, it means use the
same thing as the last record
- if you leave an unqualified name without an ending "." it will
automatically be qualified with the current zone name.
Taking all of these into consideration, you can actually use the
following "generic" zone file for any domain whose web site you are
hosting on your machine:
$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA ns1.basespace.net. root.ns1.basespace.net. (
1001 ; serial
28800 ; refresh
3600 ; retry
604800 ; expire
86400 ; default_ttl
)
IN A 207.106.87.
IN NS gibraltar.basespace.net.
IN MX 10 .basespace.net.
www IN CNAME .com.